Whirligig

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Whirligig

Season 5.0
Season 4.0
Season 3.0

Participation Information

Comedy Central Seasons

Seasons 3.0-5.0

Team Information

Team

Team Nightmare

Team Members

Jeremy Franklin
John Franklin
Jim Smentowski
Patrick McDonnell

From

San Rafael, CA

Other Entries

Nightmare, Junior, Backlash,
The Swarm (Locust), Turtle, ShazBot, MicroNightmare, Wallop, Breaker Box

Robot Statistics

Weight

60lbs

Power

24V Nickel Metal Hydride custom packs

Drive

2x 3" Magmotors

Weapons

Interchangeable "Twisted Triangles", springs and wedges

Statistics correct as of its most recent appearance on the show, or if not applicable, qualification attempt.

"Whirligig is a crazy fast, spinning, pounding, thwacking, mean and nasty lightweight robot. Team Nightmare, together with 'Team Sorcerer's Apprentice', will use Whirligig to destroy any robots that stand in his way."

— Team Nightmare website, describing the Comedy Central Season 3.0 version^[1]

Whirligig was a lightweight thwackbot built by Team Nightmare for Season 3.0, Season 4.0, and Season 5.0 of the Comedy Central BattleBots run.

Whirligig2000 — The original Whirligig at *BotBash* 2000.

Driven by Jeremy Franklin, it was originally developed from a 30lb robot of the same name built by Jim Smentowski for the BotBash 2000 event.^[2] Though keeping the general invertible two-wheel drive layout, the design of the 60lb Whirligig evolved considerably in between each of its Comedy Central appearances.

For Season 3.0, Whirligig adopted a conventional thwackbot design with a box-shaped chassis and a 2ft-long arm, itself equipped with side and vertically-facing spikes.^[3] The third version - debuting in Season 4.0 - switched to a cylindrical design with a custom Lexan body, 1.5hp Leesons drive motors and pioneering hub-mounted weaponry. In this form, Whirligig was armed with a pair of 1.5lb steel weights attached to 17" steel cables.^[4]

While maintaining the cylindrical design of its immediate predecessor, the Season 5.0 Whirligig introduced a set of four interchangeable weapon configurations. These included titanium and aluminum rods/shafts with weights dubbed the 'Twisted Triangles', 13" heavy duty steel springs, and optional front wedge attachments. Drive power was also increased substantially through the switch to two 4.5hp Magmotors. Whirligig's width by this time was 6 feet, 8 inches.^[5]

Whirligig competed on BattleBots under the Team Sorcerer's Apprentice^[6] (Season 3.0) and Wireless Robot Co.^[7]^[8] (Seasons 4.0-5.0) entries. Its best run occurred in Season 4.0 where it reached the Round of 32, only to be defeated by knockout in the televised bout against Carnage Raptor.

Robot History[]

Season 3.0[]

Whirligig vs. Snap Dragon

Whirligig first fought Snap Dragon. At the beginning of the fight, Whirligig started spinning and tore some of Snap Dragon's decorative covering. Whirligig kept on pounding and its spike got stuck in Snap Dragons side, but Snap Dragon escaped. After several minutes of this, the match came to an end and Whirligig won on a 34-11 judges' decision.

Whirligig vs. Recycler

This victory put Whirligig into the TV rounds, where it faced Recycler. In the match, Whirligig slammed into Recycler several times, and eventually Recycler stopped moving. Whirligig won by KO and advanced to the Round of 32, where it faced Shrike.

Whirligig vs. Shrike

Whirligig3 — Whirligig gets pounded by the pulverizer.

At the start of the match, Whirligig started slamming against the barely moving Shrike several times and hit one of Shrike's wheels. This hit immobilized the drive motor and Shrike started spinning in circles and Whirligig started pounding the top shell. However, Whirligig drove itself straight into the pulverizer which started pounding Whirligig's right wheel. Whirligig's thwacking stick was now bent out of shape. The master power switch was also shut off in the process. Shrike won by KO and

Whirligig was eliminated from the tournament.

Lightweight Consolation Rumble

Whirligig also competed in the end-of-season Lightweight Consolation Rumble. It is unknown how well it performed, but it did lose out to The Crusher and Reaper.

Season 4.0[]

Whirligig vs. Rim Tin Tin

Whirligig's first match of Season 4.0 was Rim Tin Tin. In the beginning, Whirligig swung its hammers straight into Rim Tin Tin. Rim Tin Tin came back and kept getting whacked by the hammers of Whirligig. Rim Tin Tin pushed Whirligig against the arena wall and lifted Whirligig. This match continued with more spinning and pushing, and then the match was over. Whirligig won the match on a 26-19 judges' decision and advanced to the next preliminary round, where it faced Manic Aggressive 2.0.

Whirligig vs. Manic Aggressive 2.0

Both robots moved to the center of the BattleBox and Whirligig began hitting Manic Aggressive 2.0 with its hammers. Manic Aggressive 2.0 stopped moving, and Whirligig was declared the winner by KO. Whirligig advanced to the round of 64 against Firestorm.

Whirligig vs. Firestorm

Both robots charged and missed each other constantly until Whirligig started hitting Firestorm with its hammers, sending it off-course. Eventually, Firestorm charged at Whirligig and missed, lodging its front wedge bars under the arena spikestrip, trapping itself. Whirligig approached and hit Firestorm a couple times, but was unable to free it. The referees counted Firestorm out and Whirligig won the match by TKO. This win put Whirligig to the Round of 32, where it faced Carnage Raptor in a televised match.

Whirligig vs. Carnage Raptor

Whirligig hits Carnage Raptor.

Both robots were hesitant in approaching the other and Carnage Raptor nudged Whirligig with its axe head. Whirligig went into a spin and hit Carnage Raptor a couple of times. As Carnage Raptor escaped, the thwackbot stopped spinning and Carnage Raptor began spinning itself. Carnage Raptor then delivered a strong blow to Whirligig. Both robots were moving around the arena and Whirligig drove over its own flail. After getting itself straightened out, Whirligig went into another spin, barely missing Carnage Raptor.

Carnagevswhirligig 1 sf01b — Whirligig gets caught on the killsaws.

Carnage Raptor decided to go into a spin of its own and neither robot made contact with each other. Whirligig tried to readjust, but Carnage Raptor hit Whirligig's flail with its axe while it adjusted. It then had its axe underneath Whirligig and pushed it to the killsaws. Whirligig was pushed off by the killsaws popping up, but the debris being shot out was caused by Carnage Raptor's axe. Whirligig slammed itself into Carnage Raptor while Carnage Raptor tried to get away from the killsaws without being hit again. Whirligig drove itself over the killsaws and began moving around in the blue square.

Carnagevswhirligig 2 sf01b — Carnage Raptor pushes Whirligig under the pulverizer.

Carnage Raptor got its axe under Whirligig again and pushed it onto the entrance ramp. Whirligig escaped by driving over the spikestrip wall and directly into the pulverizer. After Whirligig was able to escape a few narrow blows from the pulverizer, Carnage Raptor got underneath Whirligig and pushed it under the pulverizer again. The pulverizer landed on Whirligig's body and Whirligig stopped moving as the impact knocked one of the radio connections loose. Carnage Raptor backed off and Whirligig's wheel was being pounded by the pulverizer.

Whirligigtireflatted — Whirligig's tire gets flattened from being pounded by the pulverizer many times.

At this point, Jeremy Franklin was tapping out and the referee blew his whistle and shouted "Tap-out, tap-out, tap-out" into his microphone, but the pulverizer kept hitting Whirligig. This kept on going because Peter Lambertson was too busy looking at the audience and making a show out of pressing the pulverizer button to notice anything that was going on, sparking some controversy. Finally, Pete stopped pressing the pulverizer button and Whirligig had a flat tire now. The buzzer sounded and Carnage Raptor won by KO at 2:03. This meant that Whirligig was eliminated from the tournament again.

Lightweight Consolation Rumble

As in Season 3.0, Whirligig also participated in the Lightweight Consolation Rumble. After hitting Scrap Daddy Surplus and Mouser Classic Mecha-Catbot at the beginning, Whirligig moved to the center of the BattleBox and started spinning its flails into Herr Gepoünden, who was also spinning. Whirligig stopped spinning and nudged Bulldog with one of its flails. Shortly after, Whirligig stopped moving entirely and the motionless Whirligig was being pushed around by Dr. Inferno Jr. and Scrap Daddy Surplus. The immobile Whirligig was pushed against the spikestrip and the time ran out moments after. Dr. Inferno Jr. and The Crusher were declared the winners of the lightweight consolation rumble and Whirligig lost overall.

Season 5.0[]

Whirligig vs. Trilobot

For reaching the TV rounds of Season 4.0, Whirligig was allowed to skip the preliminary rounds of Season 5.0, where it eventually fought Trilobot. Whirligig won on a close 24-21 judges' decision and advanced to the Round of 16, where it faced Code:BLACK.

Whirligig vs. Code:BLACK

Code:BLACK won by KO and Whirligig was eliminated from the tournament.